It was a day in March.
那是三月的一天。

Never, never begin a story this way when you write one. No opening could possibly be worse. —
永远不要在写故事时以这种方式开头。没有比这更糟糕的开头了。 —

It is unimaginative, flat, dry and likely to consist of mere wind. —
这种开头缺乏想象力，平淡无奇，干巴巴，很可能只是空话。 —

But in this instance it is allowable. —
但在这种情况下可以容忍。 —

For the following paragraph, which should have inaugurated the narrative, is too wildly extravagant and preposterous to be flaunted in the face of the reader without preparation.
以下段落应该是故事的开头，但太过夸张和荒唐，所以需要做些准备再呈现给读者。

Sarah was crying over her bill of fare.
莎拉正在为她的菜单哭泣。

Think of a New York girl shedding tears on the menu card!
想象一下一个纽约女孩在菜单上流泪！

To account for this you will be allowed to guess that the lobsters were all out, or that she had sworn ice-cream off during Lent, or that she had ordered onions, or that she had just come from a Hackett matinee. —
你可以猜测，龙虾卖完了，或者她在四旬期里发誓不吃冰淇淋，或者她点了洋葱，或者她刚从哈凯特的午场剧回来。 —

And then, all these theories being wrong, you will please let the story proceed.
接着，既然所有的理论都是错误的，那么请继续故事的进展。

The gentleman who announced that the world was an oyster which he with his sword would open made a larger hit than he deserved. —
那个宣称世界就像一个牡蛎，他将用剑来打开的绅士获得了比他应得的更大成功。 —

It is not difficult to open an oyster with a sword. —
使用剑打开牡蛎并不困难。 —

But did you ever notice any one try to open the terrestrial bivalve with a typewriter? —
但是你是否注意到有人试图用打字机打开陆地双壳类动物？ —

Like to wait for a dozen raw opened that way?
喜欢等待被用这种方式打开的一打生的吗？

Sarah had managed to pry apart the shells with her unhandy weapon far enough to nibble a wee bit at the cold and clammy world within. —
在她笨拙的武器的帮助下，莎拉设法将贝壳分开，以便在冷冰冰、潮湿的世界中咬一小口。 —

She knew no more shorthand than if she had been a graduate in stenography just let slip upon the world by a business college. —
她对速记一窍不通，好像她是一个毕业于商学院的速记专业学位毕业生。 —

So, not being able to stenog, she could not enter that bright galaxy of office talent. —
所以，因为她不会速记，她无法进入那个充满办公室人才的光辉群体。 —

She was a free-lance typewriter and canvassed for odd jobs of copying.
她是一个自由职业打字员，四处寻找复印的零工。

The most brilliant and crowning feat of Sarah’s battle with the world was the deal she made with Schulenberg’s Home Restaurant. —
莎拉与舒伦贝格家餐厅达成的交易是她与世界之战中最辉煌、最关键的壮举。 —

The restaurant was next door to the old red brick in which she ball- roomed. —
这家餐厅就在她的红砖别墅隔壁。 —

One evening after dining at Schulenberg’s 40-cent, five- course table d’hote (served as fast as you throw the five baseballs at the coloured gentleman’s head) Sarah took away with her the bill of fare. —
一天晚上在舒伦伯格的40美分五道菜的桌子旁吃饭后（速度快得就像你把五个棒球朝着那位有色人士的头扔），萨拉带走了菜单。 —

It was written in an almost unreadable script neither English nor German, and so arranged that if you were not careful you began with a toothpick and rice pudding and ended with soup and the day of the week.
菜单以一种几乎难以辨认的字迹写成，既不是英语也不是德语，并且安排得如果你不小心，你就会以牙签和米布丁开头，以汤和星期几结束。

The next day Sarah showed Schulenberg a neat card on which the menu was beautifully typewritten with the viands temptingly marshalled under their right and proper heads from “hors d’oeuvre” to “not responsible for overcoats and umbrellas.”
第二天，萨拉给舒伦伯格展示了一张整洁的卡片，卡片上的菜单用漂亮的打印字体排列整齐，各种美食诱人地按照正确的标题从“开胃菜”到“不负责大衣和雨伞”排列着。

Schulenberg became a naturalised citizen on the spot. —
舒伦伯格当场就成为了入籍公民。 —

Before Sarah left him she had him willingly committed to an agreement. —
在萨拉离开他之前，她让他自愿接受了一项协议。 —

She was to furnish typewritten bills of fare for the twenty-one tables in the restaurant–a new bill for each day’s dinner, and new ones for breakfast and lunch as often as changes occurred in the food or as neatness required.
她要为餐厅的21张餐桌提供打印好的菜单 -每天的晚餐都要有新的菜单，早餐和午餐每次食物变化或整洁要求时都要有新菜单。

In return for this Schulenberg was to send three meals per diem to Sarah’s hall room by a waiter–an obsequious one if possible–and furnish her each afternoon with a pencil draft of what Fate had in store for Schulenberg’s customers on the morrow.
作为回报，舒伦贝格会让一个服务员每天送三顿饭到莎拉的房间 - 最好是一个殷勤的服务员，并每天下午提供舒伦贝格顾客明天的饭菜草稿。

Mutual satisfaction resulted from the agreement. —
双方都很满意这份协议。 —

Schulenberg’s patrons now knew what the food they ate was called even if its nature sometimes puzzled them. —
舒伦贝格的顾客现在知道他们吃的食物叫什么，即使食物的性质有时让他们感到困惑。 —

And Sarah had food during a cold, dull winter, which was the main thing with her.
而且莎拉在寒冷而无聊的冬天有了食物，这对她来说是最重要的。

And then the almanac lied, and said that spring had come. —
然后日历谎报说春天来了。春天来了就是来了。 —

Spring comes when it comes. —
—

The frozen snows of January still lay like adamant in the crosstown streets. —
一月的结冰雪仍然像坚硬的金属一样堵塞在横穿城道的街道上。 —

The hand-organs still played “In the Good Old Summertime,” with their December vivacity and expression. —
手风琴仍然演奏着《在美好的旧时光里》，保持了十二月的活力和表现力。 —

Men began to make thirty-day notes to buy Easter dresses. —
男人们开始签发为期三十天的票据来购买复活节礼服。 —

Janitors shut off steam. —
工人关闭了蒸汽。 —

And when these things happen one may know that the city is still in the clutches of winter.
当这些事情发生时，人们可以知道这个城市仍然被冬天的掌握所牵扯。

One afternoon Sarah shivered in her elegant hall bedroom; —
一个下午，莎拉在她典雅的门厅卧室里发抖； —

“house heated; scrupulously clean; —
“房屋供暖；一尘不染；方便； —

conveniences; seen to be appreciated.” She had no work to do except Schulenberg’s menu cards. —
只有亲自体验才能理解。”除了对舒伦贝格的菜单卡片没有工作要做， —

Sarah sat in her squeaky willow rocker, and looked out the window. —
莎拉坐在发出吱吱声的柳椅摇椅上，望着窗外。 —

The calendar on the wall kept crying to her: —
墙上的日历不停地对她喊着：“莎拉， —

“Springtime is here, Sarah– springtime is here, I tell you. Look at me, Sarah, my figures show it. —
春天来了，我告诉你，春天来了。看着我，莎拉，我的数字表明了这一点。 —

You’ve got a neat figure yourself, Sarah–a–nice springtime figure–why do you look out the window so sadly?”
你自己也有一个整洁的身材，莎拉，一个漂亮的春天身材，你为什么这么悲伤地望着窗外呢？”

Sarah’s room was at the back of the house. —
莎拉的房间位于房子的后面。 —

Looking out the window she could see the windowless rear brick wall of the box factory on the next street. —
透过窗户，她可以看到下一条街上无窗的后侧砖墙上的纸盒工厂。 —

But the wall was clearest crystal; —
但是墙壁却是最清晰的水晶； —

and Sarah was looking down a grassy lane shaded with cherry trees and elms and bordered with raspberry bushes and Cherokee roses.
而莎拉正在一个长满樱桃树和榆树、边上种满覆盆子和刺玫瑰的草径上俯视着。

Spring’s real harbingers are too subtle for the eye and ear. —
春天真正的先兆对眼睛和耳朵来说太微妙了。 —

Some must have the flowering crocus, the wood-starring dogwood, the voice of bluebird–even so gross a reminder as the farewell handshake of the retiring buckwheat and oyster before they can welcome the Lady in Green to their dull bosoms. —
有些人需要看到开花的藏红花、星纹山茱萸、蓝鸟的歌声——甚至像仆人草和牡蛎这样肉眼可见的离别握手——才能欢迎绿衣女士来到他们平淡的胸怀。 —

But to old earth’s choicest kin there come straight, sweet messages from his newest bride, telling them they shall be no stepchildren unless they choose to be.
但是对于老大地选择的亲人来说，他最新娶的妻子会直接给他们送去甜蜜的消息，告诉他们除非自己选择，他们不会成为继子。

On the previous summer Sarah had gone into the country and loved a farmer.
上个夏天，莎拉去了乡村，爱上了一个农民。

(In writing your story never hark back thus. It is bad art, and cripples interest. Let it march, march.)
（在写故事时不要回顾过去。这是糟糕的艺术，会削弱兴趣。让它继续前进。）

Sarah stayed two weeks at Sunnybrook Farm. There she learned to love old Farmer Franklin’s son Walter. —
莎拉在阳光农场待了两个星期。在那里，她学会了爱上老农弗兰克林的儿子沃尔特。 —

Farmers have been loved and wedded and turned out to grass in less time. —
农民曾被爱过并嫁作人家，不到时间就被赶到草地上。 —

But young Walter Franklin was a modern agriculturist. —
但年轻的瓦尔特·富兰克林是现代农业学家。 —

He had a telephone in his cow house, and he could figure up exactly what effect next year’s Canada wheat crop would have on potatoes planted in the dark of the moon.
他的牛棚里有一部电话，他能准确计算出明年加拿大的小麦收成对在新月下种植的土豆会有什么影响。

It was in this shaded and raspberried lane that Walter had wooed and won her. —
瓦尔特就是在这条有树荫和覆满覆盆子的小路上追求并赢得了她。 —

And together they had sat and woven a crown of dandelions for her hair. —
他们曾一起坐在那里为她编制了一束蒲公英花的花冠。 —

He had immoderately praised the effect of the yellow blossoms against her brown tresses; —
他过度夸赞了黄色花朵对她褐色头发的效果； —

and she had left the chaplet there, and walked back to the house swinging her straw sailor in her hands.
她把花冠留在那里，携带草编的海军帽挥舞着手走回了家。

They were to marry in the spring–at the very first signs of spring, Walter said. And Sarah came back to the city to pound her typewriter.
他们计划在春天结婚 - 瓦尔特说在春季的第一个迹象出现时。萨拉回到城市去打字。

A knock at the door dispelled Sarah’s visions of that happy day. —
敲门声打消了萨拉对那幸福日子的幻想。 —

A waiter had brought the rough pencil draft of the Home Restaurant’s next day fare in old Schulenberg’s angular hand.
一位侍者带来了老舒伦贝格用尖细笔手写的明天家庭餐厅的菜单草稿。

Sarah sat down to her typewriter and slipped a card between the rollers. —
萨拉坐在打字机前，将一张卡片塞入滚筒间。 —

She was a nimble worker. —
她是一个灵巧的工作人员。 —

Generally in an hour and a half the twenty-one menu cards were written and ready.
通常在一个半小时内，二十一个菜单卡写好并准备好了。

To-day there were more changes on the bill of fare than usual. —
今天的菜单上的变化比平常多。 —

The soups were lighter; —
汤更清淡了。 —

pork was eliminated from the entrees, figuring only with Russian turnips among the roasts. —
猪肉从主菜中消失了，只在烤肉中与俄罗斯萝卜搭配。 —

The gracious spirit of spring pervaded the entire menu. —
整个菜单都充满了春天的宜人气息。 —

Lamb, that lately capered on the greening hillsides, was becoming exploited with the sauce that commemorated its gambols. —
新鲜羔羊肉披着纪念其嬉戏的调味汁变得越来越被利用。 —

The song of the oyster, though not silenced, was diminuendo con amore. —
牡蛎的歌声虽然没有停止，但会渐渐减弱。 —

The frying-pan seemed to be held, inactive, behind the beneficent bars of the broiler. —
煎锅似乎闲置在炉架的慈祥铁栅后。馅饼的种类增加了； —

The pie list swelled; the richer puddings had vanished; —
更加浓郁的布丁都消失了； —

the sausage, with his drapery wrapped about him, barely lingered in a pleasant thanatopsis with the buckwheats and the sweet but doomed maple.
香肠们用布料裹着，与煎饼和即将消失的甜枫树只有少许愉悦的墓志铭。

Sarah’s fingers danced like midgets above a summer stream. —
莎拉的手指像小矮人一样在夏日的溪流上翩翩起舞。 —

Down through the courses she worked, giving each item its position according to its length with an accurate eye. —
她仔细地根据长度给每个项目都安排了它应有的位置。 —

Just above the desserts came the list of vegetables. —
甜点上方是蔬菜清单。胡萝卜和豌豆， —

Carrots and peas, asparagus on toast, the perennial tomatoes and corn and succotash, lima beans, cabbage–and then–
烤芦笋，凌乱的番茄和玉米和琵琶豆的经典搭配，还有包心菜——然后——

Sarah was crying over her bill of fare. —
莎拉在菜单上哭泣。 —

Tears from the depths of some divine despair rose in her heart and gathered to her eyes. —
从某种神圣的绝望深处升起的泪水萦绕在她心中，汇聚在眼中。 —

Down went her head on the little typewriter stand; —
她的头低垂在打字机的小支架上； —

and the keyboard rattled a dry accompaniment to her moist sobs.
键盘发出干燥的声音伴随着她湿润的啜泣声。

For she had received no letter from Walter in two weeks, and the next item on the bill of fare was dandelions–dandelions with some kind of egg–but bother the egg! —
因为她已经两个星期没有收到沃尔特的来信了，而下一个菜单上的项目是蒲公英——蒲公英配上某种鸡蛋——可别管那个蛋！ —

–dandelions, with whose golden blooms Walter had crowned her his queen of love and future bride–dandelions, the harbingers of spring, her sorrow’s crown of sorrow–reminder of her happiest days.
——蒲公英，华尔特用它们的金色花朵为她加冕为爱情女王和未来的新娘——蒲公英，春天的使者，她悲伤的皇冠——是她最快乐的日子的提醒。

Madam, I dare you to smile until you suffer this test: —
夫人，我敢你一直微笑， —

Let the Marechal Niel roses that Percy brought you on the night you gave him your heart be served as a salad with French dressing before your eyes at a Schulenberg table d’hote. —
直到你在一个舒伦堡餐馆的餐桌前亲眼看到珀西在你交出心之夜带给你的玛歇尔·尼尔玫瑰被加上法式酱调成沙拉。 —

Had Juliet so seen her love tokens dishonoured the sooner would she have sought the lethean herbs of the good apothecary.
如果朱丽叶见到她的爱情象征遭到败坏，她会更早地寻求善良药剂师的失忆草药。

But what a witch is Spring! —
但春天是多么的神奇！ —

Into the great cold city of stone and iron a message had to be sent. —
在这座由石头和铁构成的寒冷巨城里，必须发送一条消息。 —

There was none to convey it but the little hardy courier of the fields with his rough green coat and modest air. —
没有别人可以传递这个消息，只有那个身穿粗绿外衣，态度谦虚的小勇敢的农田信使。 —

He is a true soldier of fortune, this dent-de-lion– this lion’s tooth, as the French chefs call him. —
他是一个真正的幸运军人，这朵蒲公英，法国厨师们称之为狮子牙。 —

Flowered, he will assist at love-making, wreathed in my lady’s nut-brown hair; —
盛开时，他将协助情侣相会，被编织在我女士的栗色头发中； —

young and callow and unblossomed, he goes into the boiling pot and delivers the word of his sovereign mistress.
年轻而稚嫩，还未开花，他会被放入沸腾的锅中，传达他的君主女主的命令。

By and by Sarah forced back her tears. —
不久之后，莎拉强忍着泪水， —

The cards must be written. —
开始写卡片。 —

But, still in a faint, golden glow from her dandeleonine dream, she fingered the typewriter keys absently for a little while, with her mind and heart in the meadow lane with her young farmer. —
但是，在她黄灿灿的仙人掌梦中，她漫不经心地摆弄着打字机键，心思和心灵都在和年轻农夫一起在草地小巷中。 —

But soon she came swiftly back to the rock-bound lanes of Manhattan, and the typewriter began to rattle and jump like a strike-breaker’s motor car.
但是很快，她迅速回到了曼哈顿的峭壁小巷，打字机开始像一辆罢工者的汽车一样嘎嘎作响。

At 6 o’clock the waiter brought her dinner and carried away the typewritten bill of fare. —
六点钟时，服务员送来了她的晚餐，又拿走了那份打字机打印的菜单。 —

When Sarah ate she set aside, with a sigh, the dish of dandelions with its crowning ovarious accompaniment. —
当莎拉吃饭时，她叹了口气，将装着蒲公英的碟子和它那配菜的卵囊放在一边。 —

As this dark mass had been transformed from a bright and love-indorsed flower to be an ignominious vegetable, so had her summer hopes wilted and perished. —
正如这一团黑暗的物质从一朵明亮且被爱包围的花变成了一个不名誉的蔬菜一样，她的夏季希望也枯萎并消亡了。 —

Love may, as Shakespeare said, feed on itself: —
爱情也许像莎士比亚说的那样以自己为食： —

but Sarah could not bring herself to eat the dandelions that had graced, as ornaments, the first spiritual banquet of her heart’s true affection.
但是莎拉无法忍心吃下那些作为装饰品陪伴着她内心真爱的蒲公英。

At 7:30 the couple in the next room began to quarrel: —
在7:30那对隔壁的夫妇开始吵架： —

the man in the room above sought for A on his flute; —
楼上的男人用他的长笛寻求A音； —

the gas went a little lower; —
煤气稍微降低了一些； —

three coal wagons started to unload–the only sound of which the phonograph is jealous; —
三辆煤车开始卸货–唯一让留声机嫉妒的声音； —

cats on the back fences slowly retreated toward Mukden. —
后院的猫慢慢朝着沈阳退缩。 —

By these signs Sarah knew that it was time for her to read. —
通过这些迹象，莎拉知道是她读书的时候了。 —

She got out “The Cloister and the Hearth,” the best non- selling book of the month, settled her feet on her trunk, and began to wander with Gerard.
她拿出了《修道院和炉子》，这是本月最不畅销的书，把脚放在箱子上，开始与杰拉尔德一起漫游。

The front door bell rang. The landlady answered it. —
门铃响了。房东开了门。 —

Sarah left Gerard and Denys treed by a bear and listened. —
莎拉把杰拉尔德和德尼斯留在一只被树上的熊旁边，倾听着。噢， —

Oh, yes; you would, just as she did!
是的；你也会，就像她一样！

And then a strong voice was heard in the hall below, and Sarah jumped for her door, leaving the book on the floor and the first round easily the bear’s. —
然后，在楼下的走廊里传来一个有力的声音，莎拉冲向自己的门，把书掉在了地上，第一轮轻松地属于熊。 —

You have guessed it. She reached the top of the stairs just as her farmer came up, three at a jump, and reaped and garnered her, with nothing left for the gleaners.
你猜对了。她以三步一跳地爬到楼梯顶端，她的农夫跟上来，收割了她，并为拾穗者留下了什么。

“Why haven’t you written–oh, why?” cried Sarah.
“你为什么还没有写信…哦，为什么？”萨拉呼喊道。

“New York is a pretty large town,” said Walter Franklin. —
“纽约是一个相当大的城市，”沃尔特·富兰克林说道。 —

“I came in a week ago to your old address. —
“一周前我来到你的旧地址， —

I found that you went away on a Thursday. —
发现你在一个星期四离开了。 —

That consoled some; it eliminated the possible Friday bad luck. —
这让人欣慰了一些，排除了可能的星期五的厄运。 —

But it didn’t prevent my hunting for you with police and otherwise ever since!
但是这并没有阻止我一直在用警察和其他方式寻找你！

“I wrote!” said Sarah, vehemently.
“我写了！”萨拉激动地说道。

“Never got it!”
“从没收到！”

“Then how did you find me?”
“那你是怎么找到我的？”

The young farmer smiled a springtime smile. —
这位年轻的农民笑了一个春天般的笑容。 —

“I dropped into that Home Restaurant next door this evening,” said he. “I don’t care who knows it; —
“今天晚上，我进了隔壁的那家首页餐厅，”他说。“我不在乎谁知道； —

I like a dish of some kind of greens at this time of the year. —
这个时候我喜欢吃一份什么样的青菜。 —

I ran my eye down that nice typewritten bill of fare looking for something in that line. —
我浏览了那份漂亮的打印的菜单，寻找这方面的东西。 —

When I got below cabbage I turned my chair over and hollered for the proprietor. —
当我看到卷心菜之下的蒲公英时，我翻倒了椅子并向餐馆老板大喊。 —

He told me where you lived.”
他告诉我你住在哪里。”

“I remember,” sighed Sarah, happily. —
“我记得了，”萨拉幸福地叹了口气。 —

“That was dandelions below cabbage.”
“卷心菜之下是蒲公英。”

“I’d know that cranky capital W ‘way above the line that your typewriter makes anywhere in the world,” said Franklin.
“我会认出那个脾气暴躁的大写字母W，它在世界任何地方打字机上都独一无二，”富兰克林说道。

“Why, there’s no W in dandelions,” said Sarah, in surprise.
“怎么会没有W在蒲公英里面，”惊讶地说着莎拉。

The young man drew the bill of fare from his pocket, and pointed to a line.
年轻人从口袋里拿出了菜单，并指着其中一行。

Sarah recognised the first card she had typewritten that afternoon. —
莎拉认出了当天下午她打的第一张卡片。 —

There was still the rayed splotch in the upper right-hand corner where a tear had fallen. —
尚有一处左上角的斑点，那是眼泪落下的痕迹。 —

But over the spot where one should have read the name of the meadow plant, the clinging memory of their golden blossoms had allowed her fingers to strike strange keys.
但是在那个本应显示草地植物名称的地方，金黄的花朵留下的记忆让她的手指敲击出了陌生的键位。

Between the red cabbage and the stuffed green peppers was the item:
在红包菜和馅青椒之间是这样一条项目：

“DEAREST WALTER, WITH HARD-BOILED EGG.”
“亲爱的沃尔特，搭配水煮蛋。”